He took his money for his day's work with indifference: but when we presented him with two couple of clean rabbits his gratitude was too much for him to express.

The gnawn and 'blown' rabbits [by shot] were his perquisite, the clean rabbits an unexpected gift.

It was not their monetary value; it was the fact that they were rabbits.
The man's instinct for hunting was so strong that it seemed to overcome everything else.

He would walk miles--after a long day's farm work--just to help old Luke, the rabbit contractor, bring home the rabbits in the evening from the Upper Woods.

He worked regularly for one farmer, and did his work well: he was a sober man too as men go, that is he did not get drunk more than once a month.